As strong waves surged across the vast Pacific on Wednesday, people all over the world remained glued to their phones, tracking the rapid advances in the tsunami.

However, in China, over a million people were looking for an unusual term: “prophecy.”

This is because, to some, it seemed that natural disasters were predicted four years ago in Japanese comic books.

“The Future I Saw,” published in 1999 by cartoon artist Ryo Tatsuki, warned in March 2011 about a major disaster.

Released in 2021, her “full version” claimed that the date would skyrocket in most of Asia in recent months as the next major earthquake hit in July 2025, bringing the surge in viral internet memes and debate in much of Asia.

In China, the search term associated with Tatsuki’s so-called “prophecy” won over 1.1 million views on the video app Douyin shortly after Wednesday’s Pacific Tsunami.

“Will Ryocki’s predictions for the July disaster come true?” The headline for Wednesday’s article was executed in Hong Kong newspapers.

The manga has gained enthusiastic support since its publication in 2021. However, fans were anticipating the arrival of obvious predictions from the author, which became a cultural phenomenon in most Asia earlier this year, with many canceling their summer trips to Japan.

Some tourists are ready to go home in peace after the Wednesday event caused minimal damage. But others are on the edge and are determined to be far apart for now.

“I’m getting goosebumps!” I wrote one Japanese user on X following the massive 8.8 earthquake.

Andrea Wang, a 25-year-old Chinese traveler, canceled his trip to Japan in April, and the manga called her “worried about the risks of my life.” The tsunami is currently dying, but she has no plans to travel to Japan for the rest of 2025, she told CNN on Friday.

It is impossible to project accurately beforehand if an earthquake could be attacked, and seismologists have strongly warned against believing in the increasing number of so-called predictions. In an interview with Japanese media in May, even Tatsuki herself urged people not to “overshake” her dreams.

But the valence of debate proves the cartoon’s harsh grip on the popular imagination, which amplified bullying in both Asia and social media, especially in seismic Japan, where constant threats of earthquakes and tsunamis are looming heavily on the popular imagination.

Many people were injured in the 2011 Tohoku disaster when the earthquake caused a devastating tsunami wave that caused the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. The disaster has resulted in more than 22,000 deaths or disappearances. It was then embedded in the national spirit, and Japanese infants conduct earthquake training from when they can walk, and the government regularly warns them of earthquakes in the next century.

Tatsuki’s manga depicts a cartoon version of her own Greening Vision from her Slumbers. Some fans believe she predicted the death of Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury, but skeptics are so vague that she is vague to take seriously.

The trembling of 2011 boosted Tatsuki’s supposed belief in science. Her 1999 manga, “The Future I Saw,” is on the cover of “The Large-scale Disaster in March 2011.” Many believe they predicted an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude more than a decade before they hit Tohoku.

In a follow-up in 2021, Tatsuki warned that an earthquake in the Philippine Sea on July 5th this year would cause three times the height of the tsunami waves.

Ultimately, Wednesday’s earthquake struck thousands of kilometers from the predicted epicenter, with the highest recorded wave in Japan measuring only 4.3 feet, much lower than the 30-foot wave seen in 2011.

However, many travelers like King have decided not to seize their chance in the last few months, canceling their trip to Japan, pointing to similar warnings from the psychics in Japan and Hong Kong.

CN Yuen, managing director of Hong Kong-based travel agency WWPKG, said that bookings for Japan tours fell by about 70% in June and July compared to last year.

Oscar Chu, a 36-year-old traveler from Hong Kong, has also decided not to go this summer despite visiting Japan multiple times, usually in the year. “I’m not saying I was 100% certain (about forecasts), but I won’t amortize that possibility,” he told CNN on Friday.

When July 5 passed without incident, he said some of his friends had booked a flight to Japan the following day.

He headed there a few weeks later and accidentally bought a ticket on Wednesday morning, just before receiving the news of the tsunami. But he’s still going. “You can’t avoid going for the rest of your life,” he said.

But not everyone is at ease. Several of Chu’s friends, who like him, love visiting Japan, have taken precautions such as avoiding coastal areas and skipping beaches.

They are not the only ones to be wary of “big things” on the horizon. Wednesday’s tsunami highlighted the vulnerability of millions of people living on coastlines around the Pacific Ocean, where the seismically active “Ring of Fire” has produced many of the world’s most powerful earthquakes.

Despite the science still remains contested, Japan’s fears have been rising since the government’s recent warning that a massive earthquake could hit the Valley of South Nankai within the next 30 years.

The Nanjing trough is a 700-kilometer (435 miles) long subduction zone with one tectonic plate being another. According to the Japanese government’s Earthquake Research Committee, serious earthquakes are recorded every 100 to 200 years in line with this obstacle.

The last such earthquake took place in 1944 and 1946, killing at least 2,500 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.

The Japanese government has repeatedly warned that there is a 70-80% chance that Japan will be shaken by an earthquake in another South Ankai Trough within 30 years, and many scientists have questioned the accuracy of that probability.

Regardless of the reliability of the prediction, the nation is highly wary and kicks it into gear every time an earthquake hits it. This highly effective, sophisticated warning system was on display this week when local governments issued evacuation warnings and urged more than 2 million residents to seek high altitudes in high-risk areas along the coastline.

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When a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck southern Japan last August, authorities responded as quickly as possible, slowing down trains and warning of potential tsunami warnings, but ultimately there was no major damage.

Whether Wednesday’s trembling was what Tatsuki was supposed to be in Tatsuki’s manga, public vigilance about potential disasters will remain in Japan ever since the waves recede this week.

“It’s because of (Tatsuki’s) warnings, but it encouraged more people to start paying attention to earthquake risks in advance, improving their awareness of disaster prevention, learning relevant knowledge, and preparing emergency supplies.”

“People’s vigilance is increasing and in itself is very important.”

Dmitry Medvedev has traveled a long way since his time as President of Russia, once stood by US President Barack Obama, declaring that “solutions to many world problems depend on the joint will of the US and Russia.”

In his semi-official role this week as a Kremlin attack dog, Medvedev hinted twice that President Donald Trump’s administration pushed the US and Russia into war, warning about Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

Medvedev is the vice-president of the Russian Security Council, but he does not use enforcement force. But his provocative comments this week still made a splash.

Medvedev said on Telegram on Thursday that Trump should imagine the apocalyptic television series The Walking Dead, referring to the Soviet ability to launch an automatic nuclear strike.

The US president on Friday ordered two nuclear submarines to move to “appropriate areas.”

The skirmish comes after President Putin sets a new deadline for the war in Ukraine.

Unlike current leader Vladimir Putin, who is now the KGB agent, Medvedev cuts a different number than when he became president of Russia at the age of 42. I am pleased with the Internet – again, unlike Putin, he was keen to modernize the Russian economy and tackle corruption.

However, his presidency was seen as a stopgap for Putin to maintain constitutional limits and maintain power.

“Very Dangerous Business”: John Bolton responds to Trump’s Nuclear Order

“Very Dangerous Business”: John Bolton responds to Trump’s Nuclear Order

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Since Putin resigned from the president in 2012 to allow him to return to the post, Medvedev has changed from a relatively liberal technocrat to an untangled, provocative social media position, as he has untoldly untook the Russian enemy with a provocative social media post.

Compare what he said in a 2009 CNN interview – Russia “had to have a good, developed relationship with the West in every sense of the word,” and this comment in May and “There’s just “really bad things” happening in Russia about Trump’s words about Putin. I know it’s really bad.

That change appears to have started following his presidency. Medvedev began to rearrange himself to maintain the trust of the dominant Russian party.

In 2012, he told lawmakers: “They often said, ‘You’re a liberal.’ I can honestly say to you: I have never had any liberal beliefs. ”

As president, Medvedev told CNN that “the level of corruption is decisively unacceptable.” But then the prime minister was the target of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation of opposition Alexei Navalny, who claimed he had accumulated a “corruption empire” of luxury property, luxury yachts and vineyards across Russia.

Medvedev spokeswoman Natalya Timakova has rejected the investigation. It quickly won 14 million views on YouTube as a “promotional explosion,” but Medvedev became the target of street protests.

In 2020, he suddenly resigned as prime minister as Putin began a constitutional overhaul and solidified his power.

Since then, from his Security Council seat, he has launched a stream of xenophobia and offensive attacks on Ukrainians and Western leaders. Medvedev has a Russian and English X account with 1.7 million subscribers to Telegram and a total of 7 million followers.

After a full-scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine, Medvedev called Kiev’s leadership “cockroaches breeding in bottles.”

In a speech earlier this year, Medvedev featured images of Trump and Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky as Muppets, urging the “destroy of the Kiev neo-Nazi regime.”

He frequently reminds me of the ghosts of Nazism, and this year, the new German Prime Minister Friedrich Merz said, “I proposed a strike at the Crimean Bridge. Think twice, Nazi!”

And while he is not afraid to rattle nuclear sabers, he said in 2022 that “the idea of punishing a country with one of its greatest nuclear capabilities is ridiculous and could pose a threat to the existence of humanity.”

Medvedev is pleased too To people attack. Last month, he untold Trump in a social media post. “Don’t go down sleepy Joe Road,” he said, referring to Trump’s own explanation of former President Joe Biden.

Despite his odd rhetoric, Medvedev has played a calculated role in the Kremlin message, according to analysts.

The War Institute states that it is “used to amplify inflammatory rhetoric designed to infuse panic and fear among Western decision makers.”

But the commentator says he should literally not be taken.

In reference to this week’s trip, Anatol Lieben of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Three-Dimensional Learning described both Medvedev’s remarks and Trump’s response as “pure theatre.”

“With the last three years of refraining from using nuclear weapons, Russia clearly does not intend to launch them in response to new rounds of US sanctions,” Lieben said.

At that press conference with Obama in 2009, Medvedev was a confident and freshly created president, seeing more than Putin’s placeholder. He said that day, “We have major nuclear weapons and we are fully responsible for those arsenals.”

Sixteen years later, he has the freedom of a provocateur.

The Chilean mining company said it was found that one of five workers trapped in the copper mine on Saturday was dead, bringing the death toll to two from Thursday’s collapse.

According to Codelco, the state-owned company that runs the mine, rescuers are competing to save a man trapped in El Teniente, one of the world’s largest copper mines, after the mine shaft collapses.

The mine’s general manager Andrés Music said at a press conference on Saturday that prosecutors and civil servants will identify the workers’ bodies.

“We know that this news will be a hard hit on our fellow families and the entire mining community,” Music said in a statement issued after the discovery. “We intend to continue to maintain all our strength and hope, but now we can mean that we are paying attention and progressing slowly.”

The National Earthquake Centre at the University of Chile recorded a 4.3 magnitude earthquake on Thursday in the area surrounding the mine. The trembling and subsequent collapse caused nine people to be injured, Codelco said.

“The first 48 hours are basic for finding a living man,” Codelco CEO Rubén Alvarado said Friday. He added that 20 meters (65 feet) of the mine tunnel must be removed by rescuers to reach the location the man believes is trapped. As of Friday, only 4 metres had been cleared.

According to the company’s data, Elteniente, located in the Ohiggins region of central Chile, is the world’s largest copper deposit. The incident forced the surgery to stop as rescue workers dig the wreckage and free the trapped man.

Chilean President Gabriel Borik said in a statement on Friday in X’s statement that his government will do “all of all (that) power” to find the missing miners. “I have instructed Mining Minister Aurora Williams to be in the area to coordinate all necessary actions on the ground,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Saturday, Borik said he was so pleased with the family of Paulo Marine Tapia, who died in the collapse, and that he was in contact with the loved ones of five locked workers.

Over time, the anguish of the family and their fellow miners increased.

“Hope died last,” said Edgar Rodrigo Quesada, a miner and former union leader. He explained to CNN that in the case of collapse there is a shelter within the tunnel, but that is not close to where they believe there are miners. It is unknown if they made it in time.

“I pray to God that my colleagues are fine,” Quesada said. “To be honest, all I can tell you is that the shelter is very far from where the collapse occurred.”

The Chilean prosecutor’s office has already begun an investigation into the collapse. Codelco also reported that it was investigating the cause of the collapse.

Music, the mine’s general manager, said the accident was not due to the use of explosives. “We’re making every effort to save these workers,” the music emphasized.

There is a faint rude thing about the US president who is being driven by a small number of Russian officials to create a nuclear threat on social media.

But that’s exactly what President Donald Trump has done now, ordering the relocation of two US nuclear submarines, allowing himself to appear rattle in the hollow saber rat of Dmitry Medvedev, the outspoken but long-separated former Russian president.

In a series of bold posts on social media, Medvedev, who styles himself as a toxic anti-Western critic in recent years, criticized Trump for closing the deadline in Russia for a peace deal in Ukraine, saying it was not between Russia and Ukraine, and “not between his country.”

In his provocative reference to the Soviet-era automatic nuclear retaliation system in Russia, the US President said, “We should remember how dangerous the legendary ‘dead hands’ are.

Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio plays a recent post from Russia, pointing out that Medvedev is no longer a Moscow decision maker. It is a view shared by many Russians, and Medvedev is widely seen as politically irrelevant and has little authority, Needless to say, it’s the power to launch a nuclear strike.

It brings questions about why Trump is involved with what he himself described as a “silly” statement and issues fierce public responses that ratchet the rhetoric of Washington and Moscow.

One possible answer is that it is convenient for Trump to look harsh on Moscow, without directly facing the true powers of President Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, but instead electing a public figure often referred to as “Little Dima” in Russia due to his small stature, or in fact, made concrete changes to the US nuclear stance.

Trump said his orders for two nuclear submarines “to be placed in the right area” were “a stupid, inflammatory statement that is just more than that.”

However, there are multiple US nuclear submarines armed with hundreds of nuclear warheads, patrolling the world’s oceans on certain days. Given the thousands of miles of missiles they carry and the vast size of Russia, relocation is unlikely to make a big difference in Russian ability to hit targets.

However, timing is still important.

Trump’s Middle Eastern envoy, Steve Witkov, will hold more consultations with Russian leaders in the coming days in his dual role as a makeshift Russian mediator. It is likely that he is seeking a ceasefire again as a deadline set by Trump, in order for the Kremlin to agree to peace in Ukraine or to face harsh tariffs.

The Kremlin does not realistically expect the Kremlin to stubbornly insist on achieving the military targets stated before ending the Ukrainian conflict. The latest escalating nuclear rhetoric is unlikely to change its hard position.

But again, the phantom of increased nuclear reserves may prove to be a useful distraction, as he threatened to do so, as Trump threatened to squeeze the potential out-of-pocket effects of imposing secondary sanctions on countries such as India and China that buy Russian oil.

In fact, distracting yourself from increasing political issues in your home may be a welcome by-product of the escalating core of the nuclear.

A story of a nuclear preparation for Russia, which has more atomic weapons than any other country in the world, could mask even more trivial domestic issues, such as the Epstein scandal.

Of course, mentions of nuclear escalation among the world’s largest nuclear superpowers have attracted serious attention. However, the broader relations between Washington and Moscow, albeit under new pressure, are not near nuclear conflict.

And while the apparently dim use of the nuclear threat by both countries may be of concern, it does not show that a nuclear conflict is ongoing.

Kyiv
Reuters
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Ukrainian anti-corruption groups said on Saturday they discovered a major graft scheme that inflated military drones and signal jamming systems two days after government independence recovered after major protests.

The independence of Ukrainian anti-graft investigators and prosecutors Nabu and Sapo was revived by Parliament on Thursday after bringing the country’s biggest demonstration since the 2022 Russian invasion.

In a statement released by both agencies on social media, Nabu and Sapo said that sitting lawmakers, two local officials and an unspecified number of National Guard personnel are being taken to the bribe. None of them were identified in the statement.

“The essence of this scheme was to sign a state contract with a supplier company at a price that was intentionally inflated,” he added that the offender received a kickback of up to 30% of the cost of the contract. Four people have been arrested.

“There’s nothing but zero resistance to corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption, and, as a result, fair writing,” Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky wrote in Telegram.

Zelensky, who has expanded the wartime presidential power and enjoys widespread recognition among Ukrainians, was forced on rare political aspects when he raised the first nationwide protests of the war, trying to bring Nab and Sapo into the control of prosecutors.

Zelensky then said he heard people’s rage and introduced a bill to restore the previous independence of the institution voted by Congress on Thursday.

Ukraine’s European allies praised the move and expressed concern about the original peeling of the institutional status.

A senior European official told Zelensky that Ukraine is putting bids for European Union membership at risk by suppressing the powers of anti-graft authorities.

“It is important that anti-corruption agencies operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday ensures every opportunity for a real fight against corruption,” Zelensky wrote to them on Saturday after meeting the head of the agency, whom he explained to him in his latest investigation.

Protesters gathered at Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square” on Saturday to launch an emergency protest following the release of propaganda videos showing that the promoted Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza.

A video released this week by extremist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad shows Israeli hostages Eviyata David and Rom Braslavsky in visibly vulnerable states. David’s dateless footage is juxtaposed with images of hungry Palestinian children.

They are one of the 50 remaining hostages on the territory, of which at least 20 are believed to be alive.

The extremist group released a video in its ceasefire talk as Palestinians face starvation crisis in enclaves.

US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff attended the public square on Saturday amid protests a day after visiting the controversial US aid aid streaming site in the Gaza Strip.

Witkov later held a “very emotional meeting” that lasted for nearly three hours with about 40 representatives of the hostage family. A source attending the meeting told CNN.

During the meeting, Witkov said that ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas should be “all or nothing” and that all 50 hostages in Gaza should be returned to Israel at once.

“The plan is not to expand the war, it’s about ending it. I think negotiations should be changed to everything. It can end the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time.

According to the forum, if the remaining living hostages are not yet alive in Israel, “someone will blame them.”

According to the forum, Witkov said the United States would “take your child home and put Hamas on the responsibility for the bad behavior on their part,” and “do the right thing for the people of Gazan.”

“We have plans to end the war and bring everyone home,” he added.

CNN contacted Witkoff’s team to see if they made these comments.

Hostage families have frequently said that the ongoing battle in Gaza puts loved ones at risk, but on Saturday called for an end to the war on the territory and a “comprehensive deal” in which the remaining hostages will be released.

“Contrary to the background of the horrifying footage and harsh reports of hostage status, hostage families will be screaming in the heart of Tel Aviv this morning,” a statement from the Israeli hostage families said. “We appeal to the Israeli government and the US administration – we see our loved ones and our eyes.”

Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, chief of staff at Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), said on Friday that combat will continue to “no rest” in Gaza without a hostage trade.

“I estimate that in the next few days, we will know if we will be successful in reaching a partial deal for the release of the prisoners.

On Friday, Hamas Armed Building released an undated video showing 24-year-old David, who was held hostage at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023.

Hostages and Missing Family Forum Headquarters first warned against the use of images from the video, but later said that David’s family approved the publication of the still images.

On Saturday, Hamas released a new video featuring David, who appears to be a longer version of the video released on Friday.

A similar propaganda video was published by Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday. Islamic jihad said it was the last video of hostages before the group lost contact with hugging him in July.

“People talk a lot about what’s going on in Gaza, about hunger. I want to ask everyone who spoke about hunger. Have you seen our ROM? He has not received food, he hasn’t received medicine.

“I’m going to have Witkoff watch this video, and I’m going to make an urgent plea to President Trump. I’m going to take my son home,” the family said.

Earlier this week, the unsupported Food Security Agency warned that “the worst-case scenario of hunger” was unfolding in Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that seven people have died of malnutrition in the last 24 hours, including one child, resulting in total casualties of deaths between 169 and 169 when the conflict began in 2023.

Additionally, at least 39 people were killed and more than 800 were injured while awaiting assistance in various parts of the territory.